The present invention relates generally to saw blades and more particularly to saw blades for forming curved stock from flat stock.
When it is desired to form curved stock from flat pieces of stock, the conventional technique is to cut a series of adjacent or side by side grooves in one face of the stock to a predetermined depth in the stock such that the opposed face of the stock may be curved by bending the stock to at least partially close the grooves. This prior art technique is illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2.
Referring to FIG. 1, the piece of flat stock 10 is provided with a side by side series of saw cut grooves 11 cut by a conventional hand saw, or more commonly with a conventional circular saw blade to a predetermined depth D in a one face 12 of the stock 10. The depth D is made sufficient so that the opposed face 13 of the stock 10 may be curved as illustrated in FIG. 2.
The problem encountered with this method is that conventional saw cuts provide or leave rectangular grooves 11 as illustrated in FIG. 1, and when the stock is bent or curved as illustrated in FIG. 2, this provides unwanted longitudinal ridges along face 13 at stress points 14 providing an undesirable and unsightly curved surface 13.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a saw blade for forming curved stock which eliminates these aforementioned disadvantages.
The saw blade of the present invention has a series of cutting teeth along an edge of the blade for saw cutting stock wherein the teeth have a triangular cross section for cutting a V-shaped groove in the stock.
While the saw blade may be a flat hand saw blade, more preferably it is provided in the form of a circular saw blade wherein the base of the teeth may be alternatively offset to prevent binding when cutting stock. The front cutting faces of these teeth are triangular.
Curved stock in accordance with the teachings of the present invention is formed from flat stock by cutting a side by side series of V-shaped grooves, either in parallel or in a fan shaped configuration, in one face of a piece of stock to be curved to a predetermined depth whereby the opposed face of the stock may be curved. The stock is then curved whereby the V-shaped grooves are at least partially closed. The stock may be sufficiently curved to thereby create flush seams in the V-shaped grooves, which may be preglued if desired.
The saw blade of the present invention has a series of saw cutting teeth protruding from an edge of the blade for cutting stock when the blade edge is moved in one direction against the stock to be cut. The saw teeth each have a triangular face perpendicular to the blade edge and face in the one direction with the triangular faces outwardly decreasing from the edge of the blade to an apex. The apex of all of the teeth are aligned with respect to each other for thereby cutting a V-shaped groove in stock.
The saw teeth are of uniform shape and configuration and each of the triangular front cutting faces having side edges leading from the apex of the tooth and the bases or bottoms of the teeth may be offset such that the side edges of the teeth are alternately staggered in alignment for prevention of saw cut binding. In this configuration, nevertheless, the apex of all teeth must be maintained in perfect alignment to provide a V-cut in the stock.